Pfizer
Headquarters: 235 East 42nd St
New York, NY 10017
Employees: 78,500
CEO: Albert Bourla
Stock Symbol: PFE
Website: http://www.pfizer.com
Career Site
Pfizer is one of the world's top research pharmaceutical companies. The company's best-selling medicines include Prevnar, Ibrance, Eliquis, Xeljane and Enbrel (outside the U.S. and Canada.
Pfizer began work with BioNtech to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in March 2020. The vaccine was developed in record time and was authorized for emergency use by the FDA in December 2020 and officially approved on August 23, 2021. The vaccine is now known as COMIRNATY.
In 2020, Pfizer reported revenues of $41.9 billion, a 2% increase from the previous year. Net income was $9.6 billion, down 41%.
At the end of 2020, Pfizer employed 78,500 people worldwide, with approximately 29,400 based in the U.S.
Women compose approximately 48% of the workforce, and approximately 32% of U.S.-based employees are individuals with ethnically diverse backgrounds.
History
The history of Pfizer starts right in New York. Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles Erhart were young entrepreneurs from Germany. Pfizer borrowed $2,500 from his father and purchased a modest brick building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in 1849. Their goal was to make chemicals not then produced in the United States.
Their first product, santonin, was used to treat intestinal worms, a common affliction in mid-19th century America, but its taste was so bitter, few people would swallow it. Combining their skills, Pfizer, a chemist, and Erhart, a confectioner, blended santonin with almond-toffee flavoring and shaped it into a candy cone. An immediate success, the "new" santonin was soon in great demand - and Charles Pfizer & Company was launched.
Within a decade, raw materials from around the world were pouring into the young company and more than a dozen chemicals were pouring out. As their business prospered, the cousins bought 72 acres surrounding their building, and, in 1857, established an office on Beekman Street, in the heart of what was then Manhattan's drug and chemical district.
In 1998, Pfizer launched Viagra (sildenafil citrate), a breakthrough treatment for erectile dysfunction.
In 2000, Pfizer would merge with Warner-Lambert. Pfizer would gain product lines ranging from Parke-Davis branded pharmaceuticals to Listerine mouthwash to Schick and Wilkinson Sword wet-shave products.
Pfizer would merge with Pharmacia in 2003.
Pfizer sold its consumer healthcare business in 2006 to Johnson & Johnson for $16.6 billion in cash.
The company acquired Wyeth in 2009 for $68 billion.
In 2012, Pfizer spun off its Animal Health division into a separate company known as Zoetis with its own stock.
The company completed the sale of its nutrition business for $4.8 billion in 2012.
In 2014, Pfizer tried to acquire British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for $100 billion but the deal did not go through.
Benefits
Pfizer offers employees a range of benefit plans and programs. For health care there are many programs, including indemnity and managed care options, as well as dental coverage and vision care packages. Also, the company gives 100% reimbursement for the cost of Pfizer prescription drugs. Newly hired employees can accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation during their first year of service, as well as a number of paid holidays and eligibility for personal days.
Pfizer offers a savings plan that matches dollar-for-dollar for the first 3 percent of contributions and 50 cents on the dollar for the next 3 percent.
The company offers 100% tuition remibursement for eligible degrees and courses with no maximum benefit amount. Children of employees are also eligible for four-year college scholarships.
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